Serrations (who, what, when, and where)

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lokiman123

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I've been using PE drop point pocket knives my whole life. A short aside to the serrations story is that I used to be "anti-tanto" until I purchased the 760LFTi :thumbup: :thumbup:. That's a whole-nother story and will write a review soon. Suffice to say, I figured it's time to give serrations a shot. Before I blow some more money help me answer these questions.

1: Who makes the best partial serrated blades in the industry??? At the moment I'm looking at knives from BM, Spyderco, SOG, and Emerson.

2a: What is the optimal blade design for use with PS blades... Better yet, do partial serrations work better with a tanto or a drop point?

2b: What steel, if any, is most favorable to the serrated edge? (154cm, S30V, D2, M4, VG-10 etc. etc. ???)

3: When do you find yourself using serrations the most?

4: Where do you find serrations to hinder your cutting ability?
 
IMHO, the key to serrations is the pattern. Too aggressive a pattern just tears the cutting material, or causes the edge to get snagged and actually make cutting more difficult. So:

1: I think you can't go wrong with Spyderco's combo edges. I don't have experience with any of the others you've listed, so I can't say that they are bad, but I can say that the Spyderedge is very very good.

2a: I prefer my partial serrations on a tanto-point blade. I think this minimizes the disadvantages of serrations, (question 5), in that they are not for detail work or clean slicing. The tanto blade design gives a plain edge that is easy to use like a utility or xacto knife.

2b: The beauty of serrations is that they give you great edge retention and cutting ability, almost regardless of the steel used. I wouldn't bother with anything more than vg-10 or 154cm, if you are set on having a top-grade steel. For me, AUS8, 8cr13MoV, and even 420HC work very well.

3: Serrations have incredible cutting power through fiberous materials, so green wood, cloth, leather, and rope are typically where I use them. Tomatoes, too, to keep from squishing the things when you need a thin slice.

I like the versatility given by a partially-serrated blade. You'll find controversy about the use of serrations, but if they work for you, go for it. It's your knife.
 
IMO a combo edge is the worst of both worlds, the serations just get in the way and don't achieve their full potential.

The best bet is to get a full serated blade and/or a plain edge. I carry a fully serated Spyderco Salt cliped to my wet suit
and have both plain edge and full serated Spyderco Salts that I keep for when I'm on my boat. :thumbup:
 
I've never been happy with combo edge blades. There never seems to be the appropriate edge type at the spot you need. Something like Spyderco's Dyads and byrd Wings knives, which have one plain edge and one serrated edge blade, is a better choice when you find yourself wanting both types of edges during the course of a day -- or just two separate knives, of course.
 
I'm not a fan of combos either. Many times access is a problem when you need to cut shallow with the first inch or so of the blade. Something like a Spyderhawk works great in those situations.
 
I think that Kershaw makes the best serrations (that includes Zero Tolerance). They are not re-sharpenable, but they cut very well. They are also made in the USA and have a great warrantee (the knives, not the serrations)

If I were going to go for a partially serrated blade and I wanted to spend a fair amount of money I would look into the ZT 0200, 0300, and 0350 models.

I would also look into Kershaw's Shalllot in S110V steel, Blur models, Random Leek, Boa, RAM, and there are more.

I have never found that I needed serrations though. I suppose if I were cutting line all day or something similar they would come in handy.
 
Government, why can't Kershaw serrations be sharpened?

I have two knives that are combo edges; Spyderco Endura and Kershaw Tanto Blur and don't seem to have a problem cutting with either one. I mostly cut boxes and rope and they seem to work well for that. In whittling I just use the front portion but neither is the optimum blade geometry for wood.

Vinny

Edit: I should add that my preference is plain edge.
 
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I have not got into serrations a lot myself but do have a fully serrated Delica. I am like the others and would go for a fully serrated knife over a combo edge.

I have also read that the high end steels like ZDP really shine in a fully serrated knife because it will go on cutting for what seems like forever.
 
vba said:
Government, why can't Kershaw serrations be sharpen?

I have two knives that are combo edges; Spyderco Endura and Kershaw Tanto Blur and don't seem to have a problem cutting with either one. I mostly cut boxes and rope and they seem to work well for that. In whittling I just use the front portion but neither is the optimum blade geometry for wood.

Vinny
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Well, I have not figured out how to sharpen them so that they maintain their shape. I am pretty sure your blur has the ones I am talking about. They are cut out of the blade to create a shape that is opposite most serrations. Instead of being cut out in a concave groove, they are cut out in a convex groove -so, how do you sharpen them without changing their shape? I would think you would need a special sharpener to do it? Or do you just let their shape change?

Thanks
 
Well Government, I just bought the knife and have not sharpened it. Your post enlightened me and I was curious. Hmm, do see what you mean though and Thankyou for the heads up.

Vinny
 
mlanghornes- You make a good point about p/s being useful on the tanto. I suppose for the most part they would be rather useless on a drop point. An aside to all this is that I discovered yesterday that the only non automatic folder Benchmade makes that is in the NSN system was the 550SBKHG. Based on the reply to a separate post of mine, I'm lead to believe that someone somewhere must have been damn impressed by p/s even in non tanto form. The GSA list on the other hand has a wide variety of folders both p/e and p/s. Go figure...
 
mlanghornes said:
Tomatoes, too, to keep from squishing the things when you need a thin slice.
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I like tomatoes and for many years I have used steak knives to cut them - the serrated blade works very well. Then recently I bought a few knives, mainly with camping in mind and I thought I should test them on various food prep tasks. I have discovered that for slicing tomatoes - even better than serrated knives are plain blades, as long as they are sharp. My Endura 4 slices tomatoes easily with no risk of squishing the things - the blade goes through the skin very easily.

I am not convinced that serrated blades do much better than a sharp plain edge for 99% of tasks. But I do believe that there are plenty of times where a serrated edge beats a plain edge if the plain edge isn't sharp, even if the serrated edge isn't sharp either.
 
Gadgetaholic said:
I like tomatoes and for many years I have used steak knives to cut them - the serrated blade works very well. Then recently I bought a few knives, mainly with camping in mind and I thought I should test them on various food prep tasks. I have discovered that for slicing tomatoes - even better than serrated knives are plain blades, as long as they are sharp. My Endura 4 slices tomatoes easily with no risk of squishing the things - the blade goes through the skin very easily.

I am not convinced that serrated blades do much better than a sharp plain edge for 99% of tasks. But I do believe that there are plenty of times where a serrated edge beats a plain edge if the plain edge isn't sharp, even if the serrated edge isn't sharp either.
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+1. I am thinking that the serrations could shine when you are trying to cut 30' of rope out of the prop on your boat in 40* water, or maybe when you got your leg caught in the anchor rope and are being drug underwater head first.

A sharp knife cuts 'fibrous' stuff well, but then, we don't always have a sharp knife.
 
serrations cut fast when you don't need finesse...when i need to carry a knife for working purposes (which is often) i always choose a partially serrated blade...the buck 110 with serrations is one of my favorites...
 
I used to buy combos...... I have several spydies that I never use (ce) the blade

section for pb and se are just toooo short to do anything well. I always carry a

large pb and a spy. se dfly.I carry the dfly (dragonfly) loose in lr pocket.....most of

the time I dont even notice the df being there. I keep my knives very sharp so I very

seldom use my df.

If you have to have a ps I would have to say that spyderco makes the best ps by far!!!

I say Spyderco from personal experince. Most long time knife knuts use a pb!!!
 
The only PS blade that makes sense to me is the A.G. Russell Sea Master, where you can get the serrations on the FRONT END of the blade. That leaves the section near the handle for fine work, like God intended.
 
I used to always carry combo blades. I don't really know why, except that somewhere in my brain, they looked like they could handle anything. What I found was, I only used the plain portion, so I stopped getting combo blades, and only buy plain edged knives now. In fact, I ground the serrations off of my Byrd Raven combo, and I like the knife even more now. As long as they are sharp, they will do anything a serrated blade will do, and I find they do it better and easier. And, my knives are always sharp. I have never squished a tomato with a plain edge.:D
 
2brothers said:
Not a particular brand per say, but Tom Veff has the best serrations I've seen.
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I agree--more like a series of miniature hawk-bill blades. Instead of sawing back and forth it's just a "hook-and-pull" motion. Also the large interior of the serrations makes it a comparative breeze to sharpen them. :thumbup:
 
The Government said:
Well, I have not figured out how to sharpen them so that they maintain their shape. I am pretty sure your blur has the ones I am talking about. They are cut out of the blade to create a shape that is opposite most serrations. Instead of being cut out in a concave groove, they are cut out in a convex groove -so, how do you sharpen them without changing their shape? I would think you would need a special sharpener to do it? Or do you just let their shape change?

Thanks
Click to expand...

just use the edges of the sharpmaker rods and then lightly debur the back of the blade.

Works great BTW.
 
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